It May Be More Hype Than Loop, But Texas' Hyperloop Proposal Is A Finalist

Austin is one step closer to being at the center of the world's first Hyperloop transportation system.

The technology — the brainchild of SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk — is envisioned as passenger pods traveling at speeds up to 700 miles per hour through a low-pressure tube. So far, only a short test track has been constructed.

Hyperloop One's test track in Nevada.

Credit Hyperloop One

An organization called Hyperloop One has been holding an international competition called the Hyperloop One Global Challenge; 2,600 teams submitted proposals for the competition. That was narrowed to 35 earlier this year. Today, the 10 finalists, including a route through Texas, were announced.

“We had tremendous interest in this competition, and these ten teams each had their unique strengths in showcasing how they will alleviate serious transportation issues in their regions," said Hyperloop One's CEO Rob Lloyd.

Credit Hyperloop One

The Texas proposal would connect Dallas-Fort Worth to Austin, San Antonio and Laredo, with a spur going to Houston. It promises travel times from Dallas to Austin of just 19 minutes, Austin to San Antonio in nine minutes and Dallas to Houston in 46 minutes.

Proposals in Colorado, Florida and the Great Lakes region were also among the finalists, along with teams in Canada, Mexico, the U.K. and India.

"Hyperloop One will now work closely with each winning team to validate and analyze their proposals further, and provide initial ridership forecasts, business case and preliminary technical analysis of the route and corridor, tailored to the needs of the individual route," the organizers said in a press release.

Significant regulatory, logistical and financial hurdles would undoubtedly need to be overcome for any of the finalist proposals to come to fruition.

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A proposal that could help you maintain your sanity on the 195-mile trip from Austin to Dallas was unveiled in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

Hyperloop Texas projects the trip would take less than 20 minutes traveling via electric propulsion in pods through low-pressure tubes. It was one of 11 teams to introduce proposals at a meeting of policymakers and transportation experts as part of the Hyperloop Global Challenge.

Two Texas teams are heading to California to compete in this weekend’s SpaceX hyperloop competition.

Four years ago, SpaceX founder Elon Musk published a white paper outlining a new concept in mass transit. The idea is to shuttle people around in pods, traveling at high speeds. Since Musk made his proposal, engineers have been working to perfect that technology, hoping to make the hyperloop a reality.

Musk announced plans for a Hyperloop in California in 2013. The high-speed transit system would move at rates up to 800 miles per hour, potentially cutting the five-plus hour drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles down to about an hour.

The test track potentially in the works for Texas would be a five-mile loop, Musk said. One trip around that loop would take about 22.5 seconds.